


Life In Color.

by Michaelssw0rd



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst with a Happy Ending, Loki Feels, Loki Needs a Hug, M/M, POV Alternating, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-08
Updated: 2017-09-08
Packaged: 2018-12-25 08:39:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12032229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Michaelssw0rd/pseuds/Michaelssw0rd
Summary: Alternate Universe where everything is in different shades of grey… and only turns colorful when you meet your soulmate/go anywhere they have been before, or see anything they have touched.Tony Stark has roamed the Earth, and found the promise of colors to be a cruel joke. Loki has raged at the Norns and fought against their unfairness for centuries. They have both given up, accepting the fact that they are deemed unworthy of love by fate.… and then their paths intersect.





	Life In Color.

**Author's Note:**

> I had this random idea while going through the soulmate AU tag on tumblr a while back. I narrated the vague story to my sister, and she begged me to write it as a gift for her birthday.  
> And here we are.  
> Happy Belated Birthday Sumi. I am glad you love these two broken men as much as I do.  
> (Her birthday was 2 weeks ago. I just took a while tinkering with it afterwards, and incorporating her suggestions into it, before posting.)

_"He has your eyes, Howard.”_

Those were supposedly the first words his mother said after seeing him, cooing about how beautiful, rich brown his eyes were.

Tony stared at his reflection in the mirror, and saw what everyone without a soulmate saw: black and white, and a hundred different shades of grey. He had stopped squinting to distinguish if his shade of grey matched the grey of Howard’s eyes in the pictures a long time ago.

It was impossible when you had no idea what brown even meant. Colors were like tastes, like scents. You couldn’t describe them unless you knew what they even were.

And honestly, people had tried. People who found their soulmate wrote odes on how beautiful everything was, how everyone should look for their soulmate because everything felt so much more vivid after that. Worth all the wait, and all the pain.

Well, Tony Stark was done waiting. He had given up ages ago. Even people whose soulmate had died, or people who never met theirs, experienced some variations of colors sometimes. A place their soulmate had visited, a wall they had leaned against, a person they had touched… little pockets of beauty in a dreary world. But no colors existed on Earth for Tony stark.

And not because he hadn’t looked.

So he wore a smile, and decided he didn’t need colors anyway, not when he could dazzle them with a smile.

There was a touch stone in Asgard.

The ritual was that when a child was born, their parents would take them to it, and would place the infant’s tiny hand on the stone. That was the last time the child would see it for the next few centuries.

When an Aesir came of age, around five hundred years, the final step of the initiation ritual was standing in front of the stone. For many of the Aesir, this was the first glimpse of colors they saw. Most people narrated that they were stunned, tears streaming down their face, as they stared transfixed for hours.

Of course there were others. There are some who saw colors the moment they open their eyes, their soulmate living right next to them. There were others who travelled, looking for the elusive thing in distant places, and a few succeeded. There were some, like Thor, who stepped into a training field, picked up a sword and let it clash against an awaiting shield, laughing in delight to find their soulmate across from them, grinning. Thor and Sif were insufferable after that day, and had to be separated until they both went through initiation ritual a couple of centuries later.

And then there were a rare few like Loki.

Loki went through the rituals, killing the boar, through the marshes, and the hail of arrows, and up the mountain, killing the prey to have food in his belly, and finally _, <i>finally</i>_, built a boat and sailed across the water to reach his final destination- the Isle of Remembrance. Bruised, and bleeding, yet excited beyond belief, he murmured the words for the magical veil to fall, not daring to blink in case he missed it: the proof that there was someone in the Nine Realms, for whom he didn’t have to compete. Someone who was made just for him.

Tears stung his eyes, as he stared, and stared, and stared… and saw nothing but a dull grey rock, mocking him.

The elders who guarded and protected the sanctity of the Touch Stone, soon came to escort him out. Loki let them maneuver him, like a puppet with its string cut. He didn’t stay for the feast thrown in celebration of his coming of age, instead choosing barricade himself inside his room. He didn’t open the door for a week after that, neither responding to Thor banging on it nor to Odin’s orders of coming out.

It was Frigga’s quiet entreaty that made him crack. Her face, wrought with compassion and worry, made him fling himself in her arms like he used when he was just two hundred years old, sobbing uncontrollably.

Later, he laid with his head in Frigga’s lap, as she ran gentle fingers through his hair, his tears finally dry. “Why did this happen to me?”

“It’s not the end of the world, you know?” She caressed his face, but he shook his head. “Your soulmate might not even be born yet. You are allowed to revisit the Touch Stone in a hundred years’ time, and then every hundred years thereafter.”

Tears gathered in the corner of his eyes, which the Queen gently wiped away. He turned around and hid his face in the warm comfort of her, and she laughed lightly.

“And then there are other realms as well, Vanaheim has a Touch Stone, so does Alfhiem. They will let the Son of Odin come for a visit, will be honored to have you pick from their race.” She smiled then, Loki could hear it in her voice, “And though the paths to Jotunheim, Svartalfheim and Muspelheim are forbidden, I am sure that would not deter my son from looking for his soulmate.”

Hope bubbled in his chest, and yet the crushing despair wouldn’t go away. “What if… what if I still don’t find them? What if they don’t exist, and never will?”

“Then, my dear son,” her voice became somber, “it’s not as bad as you fear. A world without colors, without your soulmate, is hardly dull. There’s so much beauty within it still, so much to look forward to and appreciate.”

“Did you not see colors at your initiation ritual, Mother?” The sadness in her voice made him pull away to look at her.

“Oh I did.” She nodded, her voice awed and nostalgic. “It was blue, bright and shining, and the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I had to be dragged away from there, and yet, I dreamed about it every night until I finally met him.”

“Then you wouldn’t understand how I feel.” Loki hung his head.

“You remember I am a Vanir, right?” Frigga asked, randomly. Loki’s eyes shot up, a horrifying realization taking form in his head.

“Your Touch Stone, the one that was blue, that was in Vanaheim.”

“Yes.” Frigga tucked a hair behind his ear. “You have always been too clever for your own good.”

“But then… Father…”

“Just because everything is black and grey, doesn’t mean it’s not beautiful. And you don’t need to be soulmates to love someone. What I feel for you and Thor is the proof of that.”

She pulled him closer and kissed his forehead, and this time when tears spilled from Loki’s eyes, they weren’t for his own fate.

“What happened to him?” he asked, because he had to know.

“There was a war. We suffered heavy losses, and I wasn’t the only one whose world lost all its colors that day, but that was a long time ago. And as fate would have it, that very war led me here, to my two sons, who are the light of my life and bring me more happiness than any soulmate ever could’ve.”

“Mother.”

He hugged her, helplessly, his tears soaking in her golden strands, unable to disentangle the mess of emotions in his heart.

“I wish you joys in your life, Loki. A soulmate too, if that is what it takes, and a better fate than mine. The Gods owe me, and I call in their favor.”

She sang him the ancient song of Vanaheim then, a lullaby, and he fell asleep to her soft melodic voice, full of nostalgia, and love.

“Don’t waste your life chasing ghosts.” He heard her murmur as she kissed his forehead again, but he didn’t remember it when he woke up in the morning.

Tony disliked the schmoozing, but he was good at it. People gathered around him like flies, trying to get their five minutes of fame by catching his attention, and failing that, catching attention of someone important around him.

Tony, despite knowing none of it was real, couldn’t help but enjoy the shower of affection a little bit. And well, one didn’t need colors to enjoy sex. Dopamine worked the same way, with or without it.

He was dancing with one of the ladies. She had been staring at him long enough for him for be sure that his advances wouldn’t be unwelcome. They hardly ever were. She danced gracefully, twirling in the spot and then plastered herself to his torso a little too intimately. He grinned, knowing he wouldn’t be sleeping alone tonight.

He wondered if he could get out of this party early, and that’s when he felt the whisper of the woman in his ear.

“Why don’t we go to somewhere private, huh?”

Tony smiled at her, the leer in his gaze deliberate. “It’s like you can read my mind.”

“Oh but I can.”

“Really?”

“Yes. That’s how I know that all you are thinking about right now, is how pretty my red dress is, and how soon you can get me out of it.”

“Well… You will make a believer out of me just yet.” He presented her his arm to take, maneuvering towards the exit door. It was his party, he could leave it whenever he wanted. “Wait a minute, _red_.”

He froze and turned towards her, only to watch her throw her head back and laugh, amused, tinkering and fake.

“Yes. I was hoping you won’t notice that slip of tongue. It’s difficult to remember that all the time.”

“You have a soulmate.” He squinted, trying to understand.

“Yes.” She flipped her hair, flashing her wedding band. “Is that a deal breaker?”

“No.” Tony didn’t have to think about that, but he still wanted to understand. To her, her soulmate would be the brightest person in all of the universes, but still she was choosing to go home with him. Ego boost aside, he was confused. “But… what about them?”

“He’s utterly boring, and sometimes you just need a little spice in your life. I am sure you understand.” She winked, her body moving into his seductively.

He didn’t understand, but honestly… the last thing he wanted was to dissect her motivations. It was all good fun anyway, and thinking about it too deeply was a sure way to kill his buzz.

So he took her hand again, and led her to the lift, and to the penthouse (that he had booked hoping for exactly this kind of situation) and stripped her out of her dress. Beautifully cut, hugging her figure, but a dark grey, almost bordering on black. It was the same spectrum as everything else in his life looked. So he pushed away the urge that wanted to categorize the exact density of black in this particular red, and instead concentrated on how soft her skin was, how warm her lips, and lost himself in the most base of all human pleasures.

It was enough.

Almost.

When she was dressing up in the morning, her hair mussed, pulling up her dress, he watched her with bleary eyes and wondered what she looked like to her soulmate.

What her soulmate looked like to her.

And then laughed, startling her, and getting a weird look.

It didn’t matter. He would never know, and as this incident had proven yet again, it was hardly anything special anyway. He wasn’t any poorer for the lack of it.

If he repeated it enough times, maybe he would believe it someday.

Loki watched with disgust- because it was a better emotion than envy - as Sif brought her new shield over to castle.

“The metalsmith said it’s the gold and red, like the house of Odin,” she told Thor, with large, awed eyes.

“It is.” Thor beamed at it, no doubt seeing it shining because it was being held by his soulmate.

She held it out for Thor, and then smiled excitedly as colors spread through his touch. It had been years since they had been betrothed, and yet they still behaved like this was the first time. It was a common ritual among them, having each other touch everything new, for they found the world without the different hues incredibly dull now.

Loki stared at the grey metal, and swallowed down all the nasty retorts that were forming in his head. Thor seemed to be oblivious to his situation. Sure, in the start he had insisted Loki would someday find his soulmate, but the Aesir had no empathy. He wouldn’t stop gushing about how beautiful Sif was, blind to how it twisted Loki’s gut, how it made him yearn.

Loki walked out of the chambers, the warriors three snorting at his abrupt departure. He knew they thought him envious of Thor’s good fortunes, and he let them believe it. It was a better rumor to have associated with you, than the truth.

The truth that Loki wasn’t envious. He was lonely. He didn’t begrudge Thor his happiness, he despised himself for the lack of it.

He had told himself he wouldn’t visit the Touch Stone again, for even if his soulmate was born, they would be far too young to court for another five hundred years, and yet… every turn of century had him standing at the Isle of Remembrance, hope clawing at him from the inside, bleeding him dry.

They said that the stone drove some people mad. That once they saw it, nothing else could distract them anymore. They would seek it out, for the rest of their lives, enchanted.

Loki wondered if he was driven crazy as well.

Two hundred years after his initiation, Frigga requested the King of Alfheim to let Loki visit their Sacred Stone. Loki, still naive, barely seven hundred years of age, went to the land of High Elves, only to find the answer being the same. The Gods had deemed him unworthy of love, and he was fighting a battle he couldn’t even hope to win.

After his graduation from MIT, Tony took a year off of studies and work. He wanted to travel… at least that’s what he told everyone.

Instead, he made a careful plan of exploring the world, every country, every city, so that whoever his soulmate was, wherever they had chosen to hide, he would find a trail of colors in their path, and find somewhere he would belong.

In a dark corner of Bangladesh, eleven months later, he leaned against a wall and stared heavenwards. There was nowhere left to look. He had lost.

The black sky stared back at him, the stars taunting him.

Some days, when he stared hard enough, he could bet the stars were the only place where colors existed… hiding, and completely out of reach.

Loki was famous for knowing the hidden pathways of Yggdrasil. He could go traverse through the realms without anyone knowing. Bifrost was handy, but it left a notable footprint. Everyone knew if you wanted to get somewhere secretly, Loki was the one to ask.

He was labelled trickster for it.

But he needed the paths, if he were to find his soulmate. And yet…

The Stone on Svartlheim was black, so was the one on Muselpheim. Niflheim was white, and for a second Loki had been filled with hope, only to have it crushed again.

Midgard had no stone. They depended on blind luck to meet with their fated one. Loki was appalled at the impracticality of it all and tried to get them to adapt the system, but their civilization was far too primitive to comprehend it.

He picked up a large stone and placed it in the middle of their biggest colony, imploring their clan leader to use it well. When he happened to pass by the realm a few centuries later, he discovered they had carved a figure on it, and left it untouched.

Midgardians, he supposed, still had a long way to go, so he let them be for a while. All he could do was wait. He had all the time in the universe.

Tony found it quite by accident. He wasn’t one for walking around in Museums, but he was on a tour that Obie had arranged in Denmark. He had a few hours to kill, and his feet took him to the Moesgård Museum.

Randomly strolling through the aisles, he froze in his tracks.

He had to shake his head multiple time, convinced that it was an illusion, and yet the sight didn’t change. There it was, in a shelf behind the glass, the most beautiful thing Tony had ever seen.

The Snaptun stone. Depicting Loki, God of Chaos.

It was… he had no words for it, no words to describe what he was seeing. All he could think was, it was not black, or grey, or white. It was something else- unlike anything he had ever seen.

Later, when he researched it, he found that the word he was looking for was _green_.

He missed his press conference, standing in front of the stone until the museum closed. He then spent the next few weeks hunting down every renovator that had touched the stone, and discovered how badly fledgling hope getting crushed could hurt.

“I am sorry, Sir. The Snaptun Stone is not for sale.” The Museum manager shook his head when Tony inquired.

Tony’s laughed hysterically at the joke. For the right price, everything was on sale.  _Almost_ everything.    

Two days later, Tony travel led back to his villa in Malibu, and installed the stone into a glass shelf in his bedroom.

A week later, he built a black safe in his workshop and placed it inside, away from his sight. His eyes were bloodshot because he hadn’t been able to sleep, afraid that if he blinked for too long, the stone would vanish.

Frigga took Loki to Vanaheim on his nine hundredth birth day. They went through the forest, Loki feeling like a lost little child following in her mother’s footsteps, as they neared the Sacred Stone.

Loki took one look at it, and turned his gaze away, furious that he could still feel disappointment so intensely. Before he could leave, Frigga grabbed his hand, and it took him a few moments to realize it wasn’t to comfort him.

It was to comfort herself.

Tears shone in her eyes, as she stared at the stone and Loki suddenly realized this was the first time she had revisited in centuries. This moment was not for him. He stood there, beside his mother, who wept for a love long lost, until both the suns had set.

Frigga wiped her eyes eventually, squeezing his hand before letting go. When she looked at him, she was smiling, and he didn’t realize tears had fallen from his eyes until she wiped them away with her thumb.

Right there, standing with his mother in the woods of Vanaheim with its moons shining down on them, was the first moment in his life that Loki considered that may he didn’t need a soulmate after all.

There were times when Tony desperately wished that there were no colors in the world at all. That there was no such nonsense like soulmates. That people we allowed to love who they want, and their world would not change because of that mere choice.

Because there was Pepper. She was compassionate, beautiful, and brilliant. In another world, in a world where fate had not decided who gets to be with whom before they were even born, he could’ve loved her. He tried even still. He flirted, and charmed and gave thoughtful gifts, and yet, deep inside, he knew she deserved more.

And maybe he deserved more too.

There are moments in your life, when your reality cracks and splinters, and you wonder if you will ever be able to heal, to once again become who you used to be. For Loki, that moment was when he first beheld the Touch Stone.

But then, sometimes, something happens that shatters the very foundation of the lie that was your life, until you’re lost in the void, grasping at the shards of who you were, as they slip from your blood soaked fingertips.

Loki touched the Casket of Frozen Winters, and was unmade.

Tony was of the belief he did not own a heart. That whatever it was hiding under his rib-cage, was just a device making sure blood kept circulating through his system. Nothing more.

And then, Afghanistan happened, and he watched black blood spill from his chest, torn open by his own weapons, the Stark Industries logo swimming in front of his eyes like a huge cosmic joke.

He created an arc reactor to protect the very heart he had denied the existence of, and felt it break when light faded from Yinsin’s eyes, felt it burn in rage as he decimated the Ten Rings, and felt it beat, calm and steady- _alive_ \- as he rose from his ashes, and changed his world.

He looked.

Of course he looked.

Monsters crave love too- whether they deserve it or not- especially the ones that were raised to believe that they were gods instead.

Laufey snarled when he questioned him about it, loathe as he was to stoop so low, to request help from a _frost giant_. “Why don’t you ask your King, the Savior of the Realms?”

“So you don’t have one…” He felt crushed at the knowledge, though why he would even want a frost giant for a soulmate, he didn’t know.

“We did… until Odin, the Warmonger, took it away from us.”

“The Casket.”

“Yes… and you, little Princeling, have promised to lead us to it.”

“Surely, with it gone, you must have found something else…”

“With it gone, there is no life on Jotunheim. No soul can be born without it. Odin did not take away the source of our power, he took away the source of our life… the very heart of this Realm.”

Loki shuddered at the implications of that. So many lies, so much deception, and he weaved one more. “Once Odin is dead, I will return the casket to you.”

He turned around, and walked away. The darkness of the frozen realm felt even more oppressive now than it had when he had arrived with hope burning as a wretched light inside his heart.

In his chambers, he took the Casket of Frozen Winters out from his hidden dimension, and stared at the white and grey relic… realizing he wasn’t even worthy of love of monsters.

That should’ve been a relief, but instead, he just felt hollow.

Tony knew that even without a soulmate, there were a few people in his life who genuinely cared for him, and would stand by him no matter what. He had tried and tested their loyalty, maybe even more than he should have, and they had exceeded his expectations every time. Rhodey had been there with him through the worst of his teenage rebellions; he was a voice of reason that saved his life from his own stupidity many times. Obadiah was someone who would help him hide a body, a calm, steadfast support of a father he never had. There was Pepper, who made sure he ate and rested, and didn’t kill himself by overworking, her smile always gentling him even as her words reprimanded.

And he had Jarvis… someone who would be there even if everyone else left.

So it took him a moment to reorient his world, to swallow down the rising nausea and fear and utter betrayal, as one of the people he trusted the most, pulled his heart out of his chest- quite literally.

And in that moment, he wondered if he would always be alone, watching Obie’s retreating back, dying in the dark, vast emptiness of his living room.

The tang of betrayal was extremely bitter, Loki found, as he stepped into Frigga’s chambers. He could’ve shown some mercy, because the Queen was grieving for her recovering King, but the lies he had been told all his life made his heart cold.

Much like his skin.

He didn’t bother to hide it, as he stepped into the line of sight of the woman he had called his mother for more than a thousand years.

She gasped, and a smile twisted on his lips.

He could bet neither Odin nor Frigga had ever wanted a frost giant sitting on the throne of Asgard, and yet, here he was. The creature of a child’s worst nightmares was now the king of the Golden Realm.

“Loki!” She stood up, and rushed towards him, but he stopped her by holding a hand up.

“Stay where you are.”

“My son.” Tears shone in her eyes at his tone, and he flinched at the words.

“Don’t call me that!” He shook his head, his calm façade breaking. He came here expecting disgust, not this… not this.

“What else should I call you then?”

“Did you know? Did you know you were raising a monster in your house? Weren’t you afraid I would slit your throat while you slept?” He curled his lips and sharpened his tongue, and yet the sound of Frigga slapping his face rang louder than that.

“I would not tolerate you speaking like that! Stop it.”

“It is but the truth, _Mother_.”

“You might not be born out of my womb, but you are still my son!” She stood resolute in her decision, unaffected by his words.

“No I am not. Look at me, the red eyes, the blue skin… it’s not befitting the son of Queen of Asgard.”

Her fragile frame shook with barely repressed emotions, as she returned his gaze. He knew he had learned his stubbornness from her, just like he had learned his magic. “You really think the color of your skin matters to _me_?” When she spoke, her words were soft, but they stung more than her slap had.

He had apparently learned the sharpness of his tongue from his mother too.

Loki flinched, and backed away, the calm acceptance in her eyes too much for the turmoil in his heart. His feet gave up and he collapsed on the floor, the enormity of everything that had happened in the last few days overwhelming him.

Frigga came closer and fell to her knees beside him, hugging him. He clung to her like he had after his initiation ritual many centuries ago, and let her murmur soothing whispers of “ _my son, my Loki_ ,” into his hair. And there, on the floor of his mother’s chambers, he felt like he belonged, a lot more than he ever had on the Odin throne.

He danced with the iron maidens, and strutted on the stage, listening to the crowd cheer, because he realized that this all he had earned in all of his life.

That, and a few people he could trust. Well, just two.

Funny how learning about your rapidly approaching death puts everything in perspective.

So he signed over his company to Pepper, and let Rhodey take his suit, because in the end, it wasn’t about him… it was about his legacy.

He visited Thor, and the betrayal still running in his blood and making it boil. He was a monster by birth, and it was time now, to prove his heritage.

So he lied.

It was what he was good at.

Just before he stepped into the hidden pathway back to Asgard, he thought he saw something out of the corner of his eyes… something bright and calling him.

He shook his head, insanity creeping up on him, and walked away.

There was poison coursing through his veins, his death sentence written, and Tony realized he didn’t want to die.

Not yet.

Not when he didn’t know what color his soulmates eyes would be.

 “I never wanted a throne. I only ever wanted to be your equal,” he raged, and if only Thor knew how true it was, they wouldn’t be standing here.

He was furious beyond belief, for he could be the King of the most powerful realm in the world, and yet Sif- along with the warriors three- would still commit treason and walk out to her soulmate. In the end, there would be no one who stood by Loki.

Especially not when they knew he was a Jotun.

And Thor, he never even had to try… he got everything on a silver platter, beloved by all, a cruel reality for Loki to always compare himself against. And always see himself fall short.

So he would do this… he would destroy the realm of monsters, because there was nothing there for him, and maybe he could live with himself a little more afterwards. Maybe he would be a little less of a monster afterwards.

He was almost relieved when Thor stopped him.

But when Thor turned around and started smashing the rainbow bridge, the haze of fury faded a bit, and Loki noticed it.

Thor’s cape was red.

Sif had gushed about it enough time for Loki to remember the name of the color. There it was, billowing in the wind, the first color Loki had ever seen.

And here was Thor, destroying the only way to meet his soulmate ever again.

He screamed and raged, but the Thunderer didn’t hear him, kept bringing his hammer down, until the bridge splintered and the backlash flung them both towards the void, the Gungir being the only thing keeping him afloat.

He grasped it, trying to swallow the reality of the fact that maybe he wasn’t alone after all. Maybe there was someone in the world made for him. The red of Thor’s cloak was a testament to it.

And yet… he had committed patricide, and attempted genocide, all for the sake of quenching the fire in his soul. After all that, after all the blood on his hands, he doubted even a soulmate could love him.

So he stared at the distraught face of his brother- the compassion he was displaying being too little too late- and let go.

If there was one thing that the magazines had gotten absolutely right about Tony Stark, it was that he did what he wanted, no matter what the odds.

And for once, he wanted to live.

So he created a new element out of thin air, and did exactly that… he lived.

The void is something that cannot be quantified. The void _is_.

There was only one thing that could make someone survive the dark emptiness of it, walk through the blinding light of Yggdrasil as it rips you apart and not disintegrate. And it was the one thing Loki didn’t know he even possessed.

And yet, there it was.

Hope.

Hope that maybe, just maybe, there was redemption waiting for him still. Maybe there was love.

So Loki closed his eyes, and cursed the Norns, as he let the tenacious curse that was hope take hold of his heart… and survived.

Tony walked through the dismantled shield facility and froze.

“Mr. Stark. If you will please step this way.” Agent Coulson was talking to him but he couldn’t process it. He felt him touch his shoulder, trying to gain his attention. “Mr. Stark?”

“What happened here?” His voice was a mere croak. Thankfully Coulson didn’t make him repeat his question.

“What do you mean?”

Tony turned around to look at Coulson, and some of his desperation must’ve shown on his face because Coulson nodded, as if deciding something. “Something fell here, something that we thought might be extra-terrestrial.”

Extra-terrestrial. Fuck. That made a weird amount of sense.

“Was it?”

“We aren’t sure as of yet. There is no scientific evidence, and even if there was, the information would be classified.”

“Was it, Phil?” Tony had made it a habit to never ask for things, let alone beg. He was powerful enough to just reach out and take what he wanted. But right now, he just needed to know. “Please.”

Coulson took a step back, startled. Then his gaze grew calculating… considering. Tony swallowed, and waited for the verdict, his eyes fixed on the Coulson’s face because he was afraid of looking anywhere else.

“I suppose it won’t be against regulation to disclose that we suspect that the mysterious object might have belonged to someone we have previously considered a mythological Norse Deity”

Tony gaped. And then a helpless wet chuckle left his throat. Of course. If Tony Stark was going to have a soulmate, it had to be a fucking _God_.

And yet… he remembered the Snaptun stone, still could feel the green glow of it seared into his retina, and he couldn’t help asking.

“Was it Loki?”

The agent looked shocked, and for a moment hope surged in Tony’s heart. Then he composed himself, plastered the trademark smile and shook his head. “Quite the opposite Mr. Stark. We suspect it to be his brother, Thor.”

Tony had read extensively about Loki. Anyone would’ve. It was the only way to stay sane- as sane as hoping for a mythical being to be his soulmate could get. But researching about Loki had always left him feeling somewhat peaceful. Loki, trickster, silvertongue, God of Chaos and mischief… it almost felt like looking into a mirror; someone who could’ve belonged on his side, and was a part of him.

Thor though. He had skimmed through the information available on God of Thunder, mostly because of his association with Loki, and always found him boring. He felt crushingly disappointed at the information, because some part of his heart knew that Thor couldn’t be it.

And yet… what if it was?

He tracked the path the so-called-god had taken during his time on earth, and traversed it. He didn’t know if he was more relieved or disheartened to find world still existing in the same monotone as it always had… black and grey. No spec of any color whatsoever.

Whatever he had seen at the facility- the brilliant, bright, unnameable colors- had been just a fever dream. A mere figment of his imagination. Nothing more. That’s what he told himself.

There was no one on this earth that was made for him, and he resolutely quietened the small voice that whispered about there being more in this universe than just one planet. If he went down that road, he wasn’t sure if he would ever find his way back.

The Mad Titan wanted Midgard, and Loki- half out of his mind, destroyed by betrayal of his kin and then torn to pieces by the void- knew only one thing.

He couldn’t let Thanos have it.

There wasn’t much in this universe that Loki could call his own. Not the friends he had made, not the throne he was promised, not the title he hadn’t wished for… not even his very name. But right at the brink of his death, he had been given a glimpse of something else. Something more.

There was someone created for him, someone who belonged to him, and that person lived on Midgard. Loki would burn the universe down before he let the Mad Titan touch them.

So he did what he was known- and hated- for. He lied.

The quiet contemplation on Coulson’s face as he handed him the file gave him a pause. It made his hands shake and his pulse race. He had a feeling his life was about to change.

It was only the years of practice at perfecting his mask of nonchalance that kept him from collapsing when he opened the file.

Loki.

Loki was on Earth. He was real, and alive, and right within his reach.

With as much self-control he could muster, he bantered and joked, pushing his emotions down for just a while more, until Pepper and Coulson left him alone. It was then that he enlarged the image he had resolutely avoiding looking at- the face of the criminal, the man who he was supposed to fight, the person who owned his heart before it beat for the first time- and had to stumble back into a chair, his legs giving out.

The picture was grainy- and the colors never transferred well into digital anyway- and yet, there it was. There _he_ was. If Tony squinted, he could bet that the shade of grey wasn’t anything like all the shades of grey he had seen till now.

Tony suited up, joined a team he knew he didn’t belong in, and followed them to Germany.

He had to be certain, he had to be sure.

There was a fog inside Loki’s mind, a haze he couldn’t really see past. Thanos had weaved a spell, embedding its roots deep inside Loki’s conscience and try as he might he couldn’t shake its hold. He was a puppet, blind and mute, used by a power he couldn’t fight against.

And yet, Loki stepped onto Midgard, and immediately wanted to claw his eyes out of their sockets. This, he supposed, was what hell would feel like. It was like offering limitless water to someone who had been dying of thirst, and watching them drown themselves in the thing they had craved all their life, laughing as their elixir became their poison.

Loki was hardly surprised. The Norns had always enjoyed torturing him after all, even if this was a whole new level of cruelty.

Despite the distortion of Mad Titan’s control on his mind- or maybe because of it- everywhere he looked, everything glowed, until his eyeballs hurt and his head felt like it would splinter into a million pieces. There was too much visual input to categorize, too many colors to separate, too much light to see, until it made him nauseous and wanting to retch.

Distantly, he realized that this meant his soulmate was here; but how was he supposed to find them, when he couldn’t even find himself. All he knew was that the spell compelled him to carry on with his plan, and yet he had to find some way to fail. Thanos couldn’t win.

So he made noise- as loud as he could- and went to Germany, hoping his soulmate would hear him and follow.

Jarvis displayed the fight in Stuttgart on his view screen, and Tony almost whooped in delight. There it was. There was the proof.

He had to let his AI control his flight after that, because he would surely have crashed into a building otherwise. It would’ve been worth it. There was nothing that could make him look away from the sight in front of him.

Tony had been to Stuttgart many times, and yet it felt like it was the first time he was seeing it. It was breathtakingly beautiful. But that’s not what he was looking at, because amongst everything else, there was a figure that captured his attention and made him prisoner to it: Loki, dancing with Captain America, his every move full of fluid grace and deadly efficiency. He looked nothing like Tony’s wildest dreams, and yet he was everything Tony didn’t even know he wanted. And most important of it all, he was right in front of him.

Tony couldn’t wait anymore. He had waited enough.

He didn’t even bother slowing down as he reached the arena, overriding the quinjet’s speakers to play AC/DC- because it felt like a fitting background music to meeting your soulmate for the first time, and Tony believed in setting the atmosphere.

As he was flying over, he realized Loki was _winning_. Well, even though it filled him with delighted pride- how about that, Dad, my soulmate is better than your hero- he couldn’t very well let Loki kill the Cap. Also, he was tired of Loki’s attention being somewhere else. It filled him with an irrational jealousy he didn’t want to think too deeply about.

So he threw Loki off with a blast, knowing the Asgardian could take it. 

“Make your move, Reindeer Games.” Thrilled to have the demigod’s eyes on him at last, a part of him hoped that the move Loki would decide to make would be to throw away his scepter, rip off Tony’s helmet, and kiss him senseless.

Instead, Loki let the mirage fall away, taking the appearance of a normal man, and if Tony wasn’t supported by his suit, he would’ve collapsed in relief. He never wanted to fight Loki.

But there was no spark of recognition in Loki’s eyes. Of course… to him, everything must be vivid now, unlike for Tony who had never seen beauty like the one in front of his eyes right now, green and gold and all the shades in between. It made him ache with the need to take the man in his arms, and see how the world looked from then on.

And yet, he knew it wasn’t wise to declare the current internationally wanted criminal to be his soulmate, not until he got to talk to him alone.

When he took off his faceplate, he was hoping that that would garner Loki’s attention, and felt alarms blaring in his head when Loki glanced at him curiously, his eyes wide and lingering, before his gaze became unfocused again. And that was the other concerning thing about him: his eyes. They were a dull grey, completely unlike the rest of him.

So he waited, testing the waters, a grin etched on his face despite the seriousness of the situation, because he had finally found what he had searched for all his life. Needless to say, he was more than a little bemused when thunder struck and someone stole Loki away from right in front of him.

There was only one thing Tony could do. Chase him. He couldn’t lose him now, not when he finally felt whole.

“… don’t take my stuff!” he declared, and felt the sentence ring as right, to his very core.

Because that’s what it was: Loki was his.

And nobody could take him away anymore. He wouldn’t allow it.

Red registered to Loki, among all the colors. He knew it was red, because it was the color he had seen in Thor’s cape before falling, an eternity ago.

It few from the sky, and threw Loki away with enough force to startle him, the hold of Thanos over his mind loosening for a few moments. He was grateful. So he lowered his shields and let the illusions fall, wanting to be caught. For once, his victory lay in losing, and he couldn’t have hoped for a better opportunity.

Ever since he stepped on Midgard, he couldn’t understand what people were saying despite the All-Speak. He could see their mouths move, but their voices were distant and distorted… incomprehensible. And yet, when the man in red armor spoke, it managed to break through the fog. He wanted him to keep speaking, desperate to hold onto his sanity for a few more moments.

When he removed the faceplate, Loki stared for a while, stunned by the sight. It tugged at his heart, anchoring him. The man in front of him was beautiful, and as much as Loki had been trying to avoid looking directly at intensity of the world around him, he made him want to stop and stare. It felt like staring directly at the sheer brightness of the branches of Yggdrasil, the sight both breaking you open and making you whole at the same time. Loki never wanted to look away.

But too soon, he felt pulled under the mind control again, witnessing the world through a veil of falling water, and he was lost once more.

There was something important here, something just beyond his reach, but he was too tired to figure it out.

When Thor arrived, accompanied by storm and thunder, he was almost relieved. Now, the burden was off his shoulder. He would be taken back to Asgard to face Odin’s judgement. Midgard- and his soulmate- would be safe, both from the Mad Titan and from him.

But then, in the deserted field, someone stood up for Loki for the first time, made a claim on him, fought for him… and somehow Loki decided he would stay for a little while longer.

Because more than anything else, he wanted to belong somewhere. To someone.

And this felt dangerously like home.

Tony was stalling. He knew that. But he couldn’t help it.

He was scared.

A better man would’ve walked up to the cage where they were keeping Loki, and would’ve announced that he was his soulmate. Tony had never claimed to be the better man. So he did everything he could to avoid doing just that.

After decades of yearning for something, he was afraid that if he reached out, cruel fate would snatch it out of his fingers.

So really, he had nobody to blame but himself when Loki broke out of the Helicarrier, and slipped away.

Loki waited for the man- Stark, according to Barton- to come to him. He didn’t know why he was expecting him to show up, just that he had this peculiar inkling that they had something to discuss.

Instead, Widow came to talk to him, riling him up. It was more out of spite than any real plan that he escaped his prison.

He could’ve set up the portal anywhere. It had to be somewhere prominent, somewhere he could be stopped, but somehow it felt fitting to do it there.

On top of Stark Tower.

The man had claimed Loki as _his_  in front of Thor; it made sense he was the one to bear the consequences of his declaration.

Tony was relieved that he didn’t have to go chasing Loki.

Loki had come to him.

The death and destruction, he wasn’t very fond of… but Loki stepping onto his tower had made him marvel his creation anew, seeing it in a new light. It really was impressive, if he said so himself, but right now all his senses were trained on the man standing in his balcony.

He didn’t want to lose him again.

“Please tell me you’re going to appeal to my humanity.” Loki’s words dripped sarcasm, and Tony had to suppress his smile at that.

But no, not his humanity. Tony couldn’t be sure if the demigod was anything like him, but if he had felt even a fraction of what Tony had felt all his life- and Loki had spent centuries where he had had to deal with decades- he was hoping to appeal to his loneliness.

“You want a drink?” Because no way was he going to announce to Loki that he was his soulmate without some liquid courage. “I want a drink.”

“Stalling me won’t change anything.”

Tony knew that. Stalling was for his own benefit here. “No, no, no. Not stalling. I am actually here to confess something.”

“A confession?” Well, at least he looked more indulgently curious than angry at the moment. Tony would take that.

“Yep. A life changing one, for that matter. At least it’s life changing one for me, and I am hoping it is for you too. Actually, I am hoping that after I am done, you would have a change of heart and stop this whole world domination business, but I am getting ahead of myself here. You see, the thing is…”

“Stop speaking in circles, mortal.” Loki’s face was twisted in distaste.

“You see, that’s what I do. When I am nervous. My tongue has got a mind of its own, and it’s entirely out of my control. I want to say one thing and it just says…”

Loki took a few steps towards him, threatening, the curiosity on his face giving way to annoyance again. “I said… Stop rambling.” His face was so close to Tony’s that he was torn between the urge of running away and actually closing the distance and kissing the god. The odd contrast between his eyes and the rest of him still unsettled Tony, but this close, he could see the specks of green in Loki’s eyes, like the Snaptun stone stored in his workshop, and it was reassuring.

“I am your soulmate.” Smooth Stark, real smooth. Blurting it out like that.

If Loki had looked furious before, he looked frankly murderous now. Tony’s self-preservation skills kicked in, and he backed off when Loki stalked towards him. “You dare,” he spit out, trembling. “You dare mock me like that.”

Tony raised both his hands in placation, not understanding why Loki was so angry. “No mocking whatsoever. I am telling the truth. Pinky promise. Can’t you see? Not your typical black and white human here.”

Loki paused, but looked no less angry. “This whole realm is cursed. Ever since I stepped here, it has been taunting me… showing me something that I can never really have.”

“That’s my fault, I suppose. I really did search everywhere for you.” Tony winced, “Which, in hindsight, must be confusing for the other half. I never really stopped to consider that.”

Loki’s eyes met his then, filled with disbelief. “Why should I believe you? Why should I think it’s not yet another ploy to play with my mind?” A few more steps, and this time Tony didn’t even try to back off. “Why should I want a pathetic creature like you as a soulmate anyway?”

Loki’s hand darted forward and grabbed him by his throat. Tony felt a moment of panic, and yet an odd sort of calm settled in a moment later. Loki won’t hurt him. He was choking him, cutting off his air supply, but the expressions on Loki’s face spoke more of wretched fear than fury. Tony could relate with that

“Look,” he choked out, but Loki just tightened his grip. “Look!” He glanced at the wall length mirror, urging Loki to do the same.

He heard a gasp and knew he had made his point. When Loki looked back at him, his wide eyes a bright, deep emerald with no speck of grey this time, Tony did what he had wanted to do since he first saw the Asgardian on the screen. He grabbed the man’s hair, and pulled him closer to slot their lips together in a heated kiss.

It couldn’t be real.

But it was.

As real as the feeling of lips pressed against his own.

He had been granted love and acceptance all in one moment and he felt like he would explode with everything he couldn’t even begin to comprehend.

When he had looked at the wall length mirror, he had seen himself. Strong and tall, crazed looking, but more obviously than anything else… green and gold, and all the skin tones he never believed in.

It had been shock more than anything else that had made him let Stark loosen his hold and kiss him, and he had lurched into the kiss because he hadn’t felt a gentle touch like that in a long time. So he let the turmoil in his brain keep raging, as he explored the warmth of Stark’s mouth, hoarding it, afraid that it would be snatched away.

Because Stark was apparently his soulmate.

And he had just tried to strangle him.

That thought made him whine in his throat and pull away, stumbling back. The mortal let out a noise of protest, following him, but he held out a hand to stop him. He needed to think.

“How?” He was the silvertongue, but all words had abandoned him now, except this one.

“I don’t know.” Stark shrugged, his cheeks flushed. How had he not noticed how beautiful his skin was, and he clenched his fist to control the fingers that wanted to caress Stark’s lips. “Fate? Destiny? Whatever you wanna call it.”

“How? How did the gods decide… why now? After all this time.”

“Who knows? I, for one, am not complaining.” He tried to come closer again but Loki took a step back.

“How long have you known?”

“I suspected for a while now, ever since Thor came to earth for the first time. But I didn’t know for sure until Germany.”

Germany. That was days ago. And he had waited until now… of course. Of course.

“Why didn’t you tell me then?” Stark opened his mouth to speak, but Loki didn’t really need an answer to that. He already knew. “Of course you didn’t. You must be ashamed, to have me- a monster- as a soulmate.”

He turned away, disgusted with himself, disgusted at the fate. The thoughts of Thanos, and the war raging just outside these glass walls far away from his mind, for the first time in what felt like ages.

“Hey! Stop that… You’re not a monster.”

“Aren’t I?” Loki turned around and sneered. His heart was beating loudly in his chest, so afraid of actually being given what he had ached for, that he did the only thing he shouldn’t do. He tried to push him away. “You think you know me? That you’ve seen my true colors. Let me prove to you just how unfair are the cards the Gods have dealt you.”

He stood close enough in front of him, and closed his eyes, letting the monster inside him come out, wearing his real skin. He heard the sharp intake of breath and felt a twisted sort of satisfaction, even as heart bled anew.

Nobody could love someone like him. Not even the one made for him.

When he opened his eyes, he dared not look at his soulmate. Loki had done what he needed to do, but he didn’t relish the thought of seeing disgust on Stark’s face.

He felt a warm hand touch his cheek, startling him.

“You are blue,” the human stated, his voice not containing any fear or censure. Helplessly drawn, Loki met his gaze and felt himself drowning.

Stark looked awed.

“Yes.” He swallowed the lump in his throat. “Do you see now? I am a frost-giant. I am the monster parents tell their children about at night.”

Stark shook his head, his eyes never leaving his face, his thumb brushing against the markings on his skin. “You are beautiful.”

That was all he could take. He closed his eyes against the onslaught of emotions, as they took form of water droplets and spilled from his eyes. This time, he was the one that sought the comfort of warm lips, scorching hot against his cold skin.

They burned… but what magnificent incineration it was. Loki never wanted it to stop.

There was a war raging outside that Tony was meant to stop. He knew that. It just didn’t seem as urgent as the need to kiss his soulmate… to reassure him.

Because Tony was realizing that he was dealt a better hand in life after all, and that was saying something.

“Tony… Where are you? Jarvis said you’re here. The Chitauri army is decimating us, we need you… TONY?” Steve stepped into the penthouse and Tony could actually feel his disapproval, but he still didn’t disentangle himself from Loki. He didn’t think he could.

“Hands in the air… You too Stark. You’re compromised.” The way Loki stiffened told him that Steve had a gun pointed at them. “I am going to contact the Avengers.”

“Please don’t,” he whispered, finally parting from Loki, and turning to look at the Cap. “I am still me.”

“But Loki…”

“-is not the enemy.”

He heard incredulous sound from both the men, and faced Loki again- who was back in his Asgardian form- answering the unasked question. “Your eyes are green.” Loki nodded, not understanding, so Tony smiled and explained. “They weren’t before.”

“Tony. I must…”

“Take the Scepter, Captain.” Loki spoke this time, pointing towards his scepter that had fallen away. “It’s the only thing that can close the portal.”

Steve looked in confusion between the two of them, his face telling Tony that he would have to give answers later. But then, mercifully, he picked up the scepter and rushed outside, already murmuring instructions in his earpiece.

“Why?” Tony looked at Loki questioningly, even when he was sure he already knew the reason.

“I never wanted a throne.” There was a gentle smile on the God’s face, softening his features. Tony heard what he wasn’t saying.

‘ _All I want is right here_.”

And really, Tony could identify with that sentiment.

As much as Loki wanted to stay right there on the cool marble floor, in his soulmate’s arms, until the world froze over… he knew he had his part to play.

So when the portal closed, he withdrew from Stark’s embrace reluctantly.

“What?” The mortal looked adorably confused. Loki felt the ice in his heart thaw a little more, warmth blooming where he thought none was left.

“We need to get outside. There’s chaos that I have sowed the seeds of, I owe it to them to mend what I can.”

Stark seemed to understand, quickly standing up. His armor flew over and wrapped itself around him. Loki spared a moment to admire that. For a race that didn’t know anything about magic, humans had certainly created wonders that rivaled it. And his soulmate apparently, weaved his own kind of spells, enslaving lifeless metal to his will.

The Norns had gifted him something so very precious, and for Stark, to please and protect him, Loki would even defend this entire realm.

Loki walked into the raging fight, and was relieved when he felt Stark’s presence beside him.

“Wow.” The man marveled. Loki had to agree. The sight was something- beautiful, despite the destruction- now that he could see past Thanos’s hold on his mind. Speaking of which. “Destroy that scepter.”

Stark didn’t even question him at that. He pointed his thruster towards the portal, aimed, and took the shot. Such blind trust… Loki had a moment to feel both honored and terrified by it, and then the break of Thanos mind control reverberated through him, making him almost fall down before he corrected himself.

“Alright, babe?” Loki ignored the unfortunate nickname, and smiled.

“I am now.”

The fight was vicious. Even with the portal closed, the number of Chitauri far outnumbered them. Quite a large number of their gigantic serpentoid vessels had also crossed into the realm, and the mortals were having a hard time fighting them. Tony grabbed Loki and flew into the middle of the battle, fighting beside him. Loki’s magic and Tony’s weapons made a formidable combination together, and yet the battle was far from won.

Loki was weak. Weaker than he had ever felt before in his life, after all the trials he had faced in the void and at the hands of the courter of Mistress Death. And yet, he was stronger than ever before, because now he knew the branches of Yggdrasil intimately… and now, he wasn’t alone.

So reached out and grasped the strength of the tree of life, available to anyone who would dare. Every magic user was warned against reaching deeper, and many were lost and incinerated in their greed, for nobody could wield that much raw energy. But with Stark by his side, he was invincible. He muttered a prayer to the gods and let the power flow through his veins like lightening. Then, Loki ended what he had started, in mere moments.

They won.

“Damn, that was… that was hot.” Loki barely heard him, falling to his knees. “Hey, hey. What’s wrong?”

Loki shook his head, relief evident on his face. “Nothing.”

For once, there was no lie in his statement. All was well now.

Tony cut off communications with his team, grabbed Loki, and flew back into the tower. He trusted Loki to tell him when something was wrong, but already he looked better, the deathly paleness fading from his face.

“Jarvis. Initiate security protocol gamma. Nobody can enter the tower until I say so.”

“Already done, Sir. And may I offer my congratulations on finding your soulmate at last.”

Tony smiled. Nobody knew his struggles quite like Jarvis did. “Thank you, buddy. Much appreciated.”

He glanced at Loki, who was standing straight and yet cautious, looking at the ceiling. Oh, right. Alien. He better explain it. “That’s Jarvis. My AI.”

“Fascinating.” That was all Loki said, but Tony could hear the questions he was choosing not to voice. A man after his own heart, it seemed. Curious like a cat- and wasn’t that an apt description for Loki. But he had more important matters to deal with at the moment, like celebrating their awesome victory.

“I will explain later. But first, I think we both need a drink.” He moved towards his bedroom- because they both needed rest as well, and he wasn’t willing to part with Loki now, as selfish as it seemed. He froze in the doorway.

 “Jarvis?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Who the hell decided to decorate my bedroom to look like a scene from a horror movie?”

His room was atrocious. It was full of so many different contrasting colors that it made his head swim. He suddenly felt bad for everyone he had brought here… how did they even stand it?

“I believe that was you, Sir. You insisted that no two things in your room should be of the same shade.” The AI sounded both amused and patronizing at the same time, but Tony couldn’t even muster a clever retort. That did sound very much like him.

“Damn it.”

He heard a chuckle from behind him, and turned around to glare. It wasn’t very effective, when his own lips stretched into a smile at the sight of Loki. Fuck .He wasn’t ever going to get over how beautiful his soulmate was.

“No, no, no. You don’t get to laugh at me here. I couldn’t have guessed how it would look. Someone should’ve warned me.” It just made Loki chuckle again, the sound already a music to his ears.

“They did, Sir. Repeatedly. Need I remind you that Miss Potts refused to even enter this room ever since she met her own soulmate?”

“You,” Tony pointed randomly at nowhere in particular. “Shut up.”

“As you wish, Sir.”

Even his silence was incriminating. Jarvis was lucky Tony was in such a good mood otherwise he would’ve rewritten his motherboard as punishment. As it was, despite the good humor, Loki looked about ready to collapse. The lines of exhaustion around his eyes sobered Tony.

“Hey… how long has it been since you slept?”

Loki looked startled at the question, shaking his head ruefully. “Longer than I care to remember.”

“Alright. Sleep first. Drink later.” Tony winced at his room again, looking at Loki apologetically.

“I am sure we won’t notice it once we close our eyes,” Loki allowed, amusement glinting in his eyes.

“Speak for yourself, Bambi. I feel like I will be afraid to even close my eyes surrounded by all this.” And anyway, he didn’t want to close his eyes. He wanted to stare at Loki, and it be the last sight imprinted in his mind before sleep overtook it.

“If I may suggest something, Sir. The guest quarters on the lower floors are much more conservatively decorated.”

That decided it. He grabbed Loki by his arm, relishing the touch- they had so much to explore still, so much to feel- and made his way to the elevator.

The sheets were soft underneath him, and that’s what Loki blamed for not being able to sleep. He just wasn’t used to such luxuries anymore.

Instead, he watched the way his soulmate’s face softened in slumber, the lines of worry fading away from his face and making him look so much younger. By Norns, he was young. Hardly a fledgling when compared to the Aesir lifespan, but then he had to remind himself that Tony wasn’t an Aesir. He was a mortal. Blink, and he would be gone.

But he was Loki’s…. and he would earn every favor in the Nine Realms that he must, to make sure that he didn’t lose him. He couldn’t. Lady Iddunn did not part with her apples easily, and Mistress Death wasn’t easy to please. But Loki would willingly step into the void and get burned by the light of Yggrasil all over again, if it meant he could keep Stark.

Loki didn’t know how much time passed. He just lay curled in bed, watching the steady rise and fall of Stark’s chest. Sometimes, when the urge became too irresistible, he would brush the hair off his face and smile at the way he leaned into his touch, even in his sleep. It was the most peaceful Loki could ever remember feeling.

Sometime, in the middle of the night, Stark blearily opened his eyes, a smile stretching on his lips the moment his gaze found Loki.

“Hey, beautiful.” He curled into his arms, nuzzling against his neck.

“Hey.” Loki had to speak past the lump in his throat.

“Couldn’t sleep?” Loki shook his head, and Tony just hummed in response. Loki wrapped his arms around him, feeling his heart beat against his own.

After a while, Loki couldn’t keep the words in any longer. “I don’t deserve you.” He whispered. “I don’t deserve this.”

Stark chuckled against his chest. “You got that right.”

Loki tensed at that, and let Stark lean back and away. He expected him to get up and leave, but instead, he just cupped his face, smiling. “And I don’t deserve you.”

That was a lie even the god of lies couldn’t stomach. The mortal deserved better… he deserved everything. Loki opened his mouth to protest, but Tony quickly placed his hand against it, preventing him from speaking. “What I am trying to say is… It’s not our decision, is it? We don’t get to decide what we deserve… we just enjoy have to decide what we are given. I could live with that.”

Loki considered that statement for a moment. All his life, he had cursed fate, but at this moment, it all those trials felt worth it. He stared at the way Stark’s brown eyes glinted, alive and beautiful, and nodded.

Yes.

He could live with that too.

And then they explored the different colors of universe together, ever after.

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from Life in Color by OneRepublic, which a song that goes very well with this fic!  
> If you enjoyed reading this story, lemme know. Comments are like engine fuel to writers… necessary, and very very much appreciated. ♥


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